Illinois Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn will speak at 4 p.m. today in the Sky Room of the Holmes Student Center about the cost of college textbooks.

He will present a five-step plan to reduce the financial burden of textbooks on students called the College Textbook Initiative 2005.

According to a press release from Quinn’s office, the Blagojevich administration hopes the College Textbook Initiative 2005 will influence college faculty and professors to choose required course materials with their cash-strapped students in mind. The project will also try to eliminate the textbook publishing practice of including CDs and study guides with textbooks that students usually never use. Quinn also hopes to provide students with a sales tax exemption on their textbooks, which can save students $45 or more a semester.

Donna Dalton, a senior political science major, is pleased Quinn has decided to speak at NIU regarding the issue.

“It’s great that Lt. Gov. Quinn is coming out with ideas to try and help students,” she said. “The issue of higher education has hurt the Blagojevich administration in the past.”

Quinn has given this speech at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Southern Illinois University. He is also speaking at 10 a.m. today at Illinois State University.

Student trustee Andrew Nelms was asked by Quinn’s office to speak at the event. He will be there as both a representative of NIU students and as a student.

“With student [debt] on the rise and state support [for] higher education on the decline, I welcome any efforts on the part of government to reduce the [financial] burden [of textbooks] on students,” he said.